Back Beyond the Woods (Wiki Contest: March 2013)
This story was written for Percy Jackson Fanfiction Wiki Contest: March 2013 by HunterofArtemis12 . Second attempt!!! At first if you don't succeed '''try try again'.'' UPDATE: MIGHT TRY FOR NEXT MONTHS CONTEST '' Kassidy.png|Kassidy daughter of Athena Drake.png|Drake child of Hephaestus Leah daughter of Athena.png|Leah daughter of Athena AJ Bowing.png|AJ Bowing Ashley daughter of Athena.png|Ashley daughter of Athena Becka.png|Becka daughter of Hepehaestus Brock.png|Brock son of Aphrodite '' Beginning (A really lame poem made by Yours Truly) Back beyond the woods, where no one goes. Back beyond the woods, beware the Poison Touch Trees bending, legs shaking, burning sensation Enter the world of misty thought, the wind is howling Behind the trees up past camp Dwells a girl alone, by the name of A.J Bowing... Chapter One: Unspeakable I couldn't tell anyone what I'd seen. I dashed out if the woods, sprinting. I had to get away. If anyone knew...no. No one could know. I hurdled a bush and dodged a tree, but my foot caught hold of a root. Crash! Down I went. My body impacted against the hard forest floor and groaning I sat up rubbing my wrists. I glanced around, inspected my ankle and took off again. A million thoughts crossed through my mind, threatening to bring me to the verge if insanity. I made my way back towards Camp. As I raced past the Forges of Cabin 9, I slammed into one of Hephaestus' children. "Watch it!" They shouted after me. I shouldn't have stopped, but I did. It was Drake, carting tons of celestial bronze in his muscular arms. "Sorry." I glanced behind me nervously. "Kassidy, what is it now? Did you go into the woods again?" I didn't answer. I considered running again. "Was it a monster?" He pressed. I could tell the truth about that. I breathed a sigh of relief. "No, it's fine. No monsters." I promised. I excused myself and tried to casually jog back to my cabin. I opened my drawer and spread out my maps, and battle plans. For months, us children of Athena had been planning war in whatever was in the forest behind the Camp. Too much destruction, deaths and unexplained injuries. It had to be stopped. I put my head in my hands and stared at the schemes again. They would never work. This was no monster. It was a girl, living behind the Camp. Chapter Two: Secrets I didn't sleep that night. Maybe I was too nervous or something, but I got round after round if unwanted attention from my cabin. "Kassidy, if you don't sleep you can't help us when we go to Forges tomorrow!" Leah grinned. "In fact, you'd miss in getting to build all the traps because you're so tired!" That didn't make me feel any better. I should have told them right then, but I didn't. For some reason, I wanted to protect the girl. I was almost sure she was a demigod, not mortal. But I hadn't seen her demonstrate any powers whatsoever. It would have to be my secret. "I'm not feeling well." I lied to Leah. "Go on without me. I'll just...sleep or something." She gave me an incredulous look, like girl-something-is-wrong-with-you. "Are you sure?" Leah frowned. "I mean, you're like the major leader of this plan. You're our leader! You're going to help us destroy the monster!" She chewed the end of her blonde ponytail. "Plus, we don't want Ashley to lead us to battle. You know what's she like." Leah didn't add anything more, but her eyes told me what she meant: ''blood thirsty. '' I knew I was making horrible choices, that would result in only negative outcomes. I took a deep breath and nodded. "Ashley knows what she's doing. Inform her of my health, and have her take the plans from there." I handed her all the papers, but slipped one just out of Leah's line of sight. That one, Ashley wouldn't need. "One more thing." I said, looking back into my drawers. It ''had ''to still be here. If it wasn't my plan was failed from the beginning. I shuffled through drawings from three years ago, plans I'd never used. There it was. I grabbed up the piece of paper, and handed it to Leah. "Give this to Ashley as well. Unchartered land can be dangerous." I almost smiled, and ruined it all but I didn't. I had an excellent poker face. Leah doubtfully took the piles of paper and took off to give it to Ashley. I feigned sickness, for the next hour, until my cabin left for the Forges. Believe me, sitting on your bed for an hour with nothing to do but fake cough isn't the most entertaining choice. When they shuffled out the door, I immediatley dashed back to my desk. I stuffed the ''real ''map I'd made of the woods, into my jean pockets. Hopefully, the fake map I'd given to Ashely, would buy me enough time to figure out what was going on, without any violence involved. That map, I'd made a few years back for Capture the Flag and had planned on giving it 'accidentally' to the other team. It never happened but I still had it. I picked up my sword, that I'd gotten from the shed, and hastily stabbed it into my sword belt. I stuffed ambrosia in the scabbard as well, although it may have been squished a bit. I double checked I had everything then climbed out the window. It would be too suspicious, if I went out the front when I was sick. I looked around me once more, than dashed into the woods. Chapter Three: Daughter of Apollo As I raced through the trees, my mind split into two divisions. One was concentrating on not tripping and the other was figuring out how I would execute my plan. As I neared her camp, right behind the brook, I noticed she had a small fire going. She was clever, I'll give her that, as she kept the fire hidden by manipulating the Mist. I'm not sure how she learned to do that, Chiron hadn't even told me how yet. She had a cloak over her face, like the last time I'd seen her. Of course, I hadn't gotten this far, as when I saw her, I immediately ran back to Camp Half-Blood. I grabbed hold of a tree, and climbed up silently. Once, my foot slipped and made quite a commotion trying to find a place to step. If the girl noticed, she didn't show it. I watched her silently, from my secret hiding place up in the tree. She was picking up wood, and throwing it into her fire, muttering curses under her breath. Her left foot, was engulfed in water, as it was standing in the brook. Her right foot, however was on dry land. But that wasn't the weird part. When her hands touched the wood, a sizziling sound could be heard, horrible hissing. I noted she took her foot out of the water to do so. I covered my ears, and tried to concentrate, but my ears were ringing and my thoughts became clouded and dark. I couldn't remember who I was, or what I was doing, when I heard that sound. I covered my ears as best as I could, and recalled that the Sirens had a similar gift, but also very different. The sound burned through my ears, my mind, my very soul. It's hard to explain what the feeling was like, you'd have to experience it to understand. I felt my soul shattering and I let go of the tree trunk, to press my hands to my ears. That was my mistake. The moment, I adjusted my body, I knew I was done. My rear end slipped off the branch and I plunged to the ground- my hand caught hold of a branh- and I dangled in mid air. The girl looked up, her eyes firey red. She stood from her kneeling position over the fire and stared at me. "Who are you?" Her voice was sweet and melodiac, not at all what I expected from this demigod. But, it also sounded dangerous and malicious, which is another hard thing to explain, because you've never heard it. My knuckles were turning white. I couldn't hold on much longer, not to mention my sword was weighing me down. But I couldn't throw it. That would be one less advantage, from here the girl looked weaponless besides her sizzling powers. I gritted my teeth, but decided it would be best to answer. "Kassidy," I managed, gasping as I tried to hold on. My thoughts started to turn dark again. I glanced at the girl in the cloak. She was holding one hand in the air, with liquid swirling in a circle pattern in her hands, like a sphere. "Stop it!" I screamed, trying desperately to cover my ears with the only hand I could. If I could get back onto the branch...I reached up, but slipped. My thoughts went into a frenzy, the closer I fell towards the girl. My mind was turning into darkness, wicked cruel and merciless as I landed on the ground. The painful ringing stopped. "Kassidy, you're a daughter of Athena," The girl mused, turning back to her fire. It wasn't like she was circling me or holding a knife to my throat, but she might as well have been. "You ought to be smart enough to know what's happening." My throat constricted. How did she know that? She turned back around, and tossed me a stick. I jumped back, but realized it wasn't steaming. ''Idiot. ''I cursed myself. "Daughter of Apollo, at you're service." She held out her hand. I stared at it, but didn't take it. I'd seen what she could do. She took it back, and stared at me evenly. "You're wondering, why I never come to camp?" I nodded. She sighed, and gestured for me to come closer. She took my hand, gently, and inspected my wounds from falling from the tree. Putting one foot in the water, she took my hand. Immediatley, the pain faded and my arm felt...new. It was like putting lotion on your skin, but making your skin like it was when you were just a baby. I took my arm back. "How did you do that?" I breathed. The daughter of Apollo looked at me, with deep sad green eyes. "It would not be so amazing, if I did the opposite." I stared at the wood in the fire, trying to comprehend what she meant. "You can posion." I guessed. She nodded. "I call it the Poison Touch, like Midas' Gold Touch. It's more of a burden, then a curse. If I'm not careful, I could touch people I love or something important on accident, without turning off my power." She gestured to the sticks at her feet. "This is just my way, of reminding myself never to go back." I decided to risk it. I sat down on the log she had set beside the fire. "Go back to what?" Her eyes told me not to ask, but I had. "If I told you my name, I'm sure you'd remember me. You were, of course much younger and newer." I didn't know what she was talking about. "What do you mean, touching someone you love?" Her expression turned painful and sad. I almost wanted to hug her, but I wasn't sure if I touched her, that I would have poison inside of me. I wasn't going to risk it. "A long time ago..." She began wistfully, "I had a family. They took care of me, we were normal. Before I began to realize my power, everything was perfect. Then one night..." She paused, like she'd said too much. "Go on." I urged, trying to be encouraging. "I went home, it had been the perfect day at school. I hugged my mom. When I realized what I'd done, I ran to find my sister, and she grabbed my arm. Then, it was a matter of my older brother. I avoided him, I didn't want to hurt him too. I ran away. If I go back to the mortal world, I'll be called a criminal. If I go to Camp Half-Blood I might risk hurting one of you." Well, that left me in a stunned silence. And gods no...the camp was hunting her down right now. "Look, tell me your name. I can help you!" I quickly explained to her, why the camp was coming to kill her. "They think you're a monster. All the destruction you were causing...stealing things from the camp store. Sneaking around, cutting down trees. We ''had ''to assume it was a monster." The girl put her hand in the fire, and shifted the logs inside. "You would remember me as the girl who killed Wenston Clark." I stopped moving. Wenston Clark. That name sounded so familiar, my mind chased the name around. I came across one memory. "He was the swordplay mentor." I stuttered. "You killed him?" The girl shrugged helplessly. "We were sparring. He set down his sword and offered me a different sowrd, and our fingers touched." I had the urge, to scooch away, but it wasn't exactly her fault. "When can you turn it off?" I asked quietly. "When I'm touching water, I can heal. I can turn it off if I concentrate really hard." I nodded. "Just don't touch me." Standing up, I offered her my hand (also warning her to turn her power off). "How about we go to Camp Half-Blood? You can restart. I doubt anyone remembers you except Chiron." She nodded. "If we are going back. I will tell you my name. My name is AJ Bowing." Chapter Four: Escape Plans I took AJ back to camp, but we ran into a just a few problems. Just our luck, that Ashley had sent Leah around the back, scouting for monsters with a small trio of campers. Ashley was probably reclining on a golden throne and ordering my siblings around like slaves. "Get down!" AJ hissed, yanking my arm and flattening herself under a bush at the same time. I rubbed my arm and steam rose off the jacket. "AJ! You should be happy this is a leather jacket!" What I was actually upset-fine angry- about was that AJ saw them first- put me to shame. I had things on my mind though. I had to get AJ to the Big House, first to Chiron and then to the camp. If people here, still had a grudge on what she did...it wouldn't be pretty. I crouched under the bush, but was too careless. My arm brushed a branch and it made that "ch ch ch" sound. I grimaced as Leah shouted, "I think I heard something over here!" She started to advance in our direction. I held my stomach. Oh gods...oh gods. Then AJ did something, I didn't think was possible. Leah was still in our direction, ducking underneath tree branches when AJ stuck her hand out. Gripping the roots of a tree (sticking out of the ground) the poison traveled through it like a small tunnel and struck Leah who was touching the trunk as she walked by. I gasped. "Leah!" I shot AJ an impressed but unforgiving look. "You didn't have to kill her!" I was about to get up, when the other two demigods- Becka, the daughter of Hepheastus and Brock the son of Aphrodite. No surprise there- those two were destined to go on a date. AJ pulled me back down. "I didn't kill her. She's in a shock, but I only poisioned her so that it would only last a few seconds. Unfortunately, we're not moving anywhere." AJ sat back on her haunches, clearly depressed. Becka ran up to Leah's side and started CPR. "Want me to give you CPR?" Brock flashed a flirtatious look toward Becka. She ignored him and kept pumping Leah. Suddenly, the unconscious daughter of Athena sat up so quickly she knocked Becka on the forehead. "Ow!" Becka complained. Leah rubbed her head. "Thats so weird. Okay, anyways, let's keep moving troup." Brock helped Leah up and the moved towards the right of us. "Now or never!" I whispered to AJ. As they came around the back side of our bush, we crawled deeper, to the side they just were on. AJ seemed to realize at the same time I did, that they would hear us, or see us running. AJ sighed and told me to close my eyes, and concentrate on my happiest moments. "Think hard, and don't open your eyes unless I tell you too." A brilliant green sphere appeared in her hand. "Okay, I'm turning it on." I closed my eyes and thought about the best times of my life. At school, I used to sit by myself in the back with only a trashcan for company. But, later into the lunch period, some other kids came and sat near me and talked to me. It had been the best lunch hour of my life- I wasn't alone anymore. Then, I reflected on previous birthdays, my dad bringing that Sally Loves to Talk doll from behind his back when I was six, and pretending me he got me a boys toy. Then...I could barely breath whenever I thought of him. Justin. He was dead now, but the two years I spent with him were the best in a girls life. "Open." AJ commanded. I looked around, and the three demigods were on the ground, hugging their heads like they had a headache. "The strong girl- daughter of Hepahestus, came too close. She wasn't as affected. I touched her with my hand, but she'll wake up in a few minutes." I stared at them, lying on the ground, then shook my head and left with AJ next to me. Chapter Five: Never Again It wasn't hard getting AJ into camp after that. If you stick to the shadows, and know the right places to hide then you can get through easily. We made it into the Big House, without a comment from Argus, basically a protector to Camp Half-Blood who has eyeballs embedded everywhere in his body. You just learn to deal with it. "Chiron!" I shouted down the hall, tapping my foot. "Come out come out wherever you are?" Chiron appeared from his quarters, reading some oldie gross book and stared at me. He was in wheelchair form, because normally he doesn't walk around inside with his hooves. He was about to say something when he saw AJ. His expression was hard to read, but he still remained dignified and calm. "It's been awhile Alexandra, daughter of Apollo, cursed with the Poison Touch. Please come inside, and think of Camp Half-Blood as your new home." I took a step forwad. "Should I come?" I felt responsible for her. Chiron shook his head. "Their are things we need to...discuss without prying ears." Frowning, I let Chiron walk AJ (or Alexandra) to his office. I walked halfway, just to talk to her. "AJ," I whispered in her ear, "Chiron, you know him. He's a good guy. I promise though, whatever he decides I'll make sure nothing as bad as before ever happens again." She studied me, as she walked then finally said, "I believe you mean that Kassidy. Thank you." Her outer appearance wasn't scared, but her voice told me she was afraid of coming back. There was so much I wanted to tell her, but not enough time. I could tell her later. But one promise to myself- "You will never be alone again. I promise you, on the River Styx AJ. Your one of us now." Category:HunterofArtemis12 Category:Wiki Contest Category:Percy Jackson Fanfiction Wiki Contest